


give and take

by baichan



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Assassin AU, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Fratricide, Gen, Young Assassin Au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-16 23:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8121325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baichan/pseuds/baichan
Summary: Genji thinks about how warm the blood was and how it's cooling to a tacky mess on his skin. He thinks about how the dead don't really look dead. He thinks the moon is half full and the night is large and open over Hanamura.





	

The first time Genji bathed in the blood of another he was thirteen, he enjoyed his training and playing games with his brother, even if Hanzo kept insisting he was too old for Genji’s childish antics. A clan elder had given him a light thin blade and told him it was time to test his training. 

Hanzo was asleep.

 

It didn’t occur to Genji the difference in their training, that after a certain time Hanzo is taken from their weapons practice, and studies in his room with a tutor. Hanzo’s comments on how he wasn't allowed to handle a real sword at his age doesn't quite resonate either. Genji wishfully chalks it up to skill. 

Now having snuck into a police officer's house and silently slit his throat Genji doesn't think about those things. He thinks about how warm the blood was and how it's cooling to a tacky mess on his skin. He thinks about how the dead don't really look dead. He thinks the moon is half full and the night is large and open over Hanamura.

 

He is taught to look up to Hanzo. Whatever Hanzo says he does and he goes with him everywhere. He's told to always protect his brother, that they will be all they have and that if need be he should die for his brother.

Genji has stopped no less than three assassinations. He no longer flinches at the bite of a knife, used to pain and blood. Genji is willing to die for his brother and he’s the only one to believe Hanzo would die for him too.

 

It's dark and cold and he's so sorry. He won't do it again he promises, please, please...

Genji had disobeyed and he's sorry and it was cold and dark. Cowering in a small room that smelled like iron and fear, Genji promised to never fight Hanzo again.

 

His father hugs him one final time, laid out on his deathbed incense wafting in the air to ward death off for as long as possible. He touches Genji’s face and looks at him with an expression that would haunt him until he died, eyes burden with an internal conflict and well hidden guilt.

“I wanted more for you, my son.”

 

Genji refuses. He plays games in the arcade and flirts with anyone who will give him the time of day. He comes home late but always returns, putting his skills to sneaking out windows to work. Genji never leaves a number, just arcade names. He knows he is being a burden. He knows connections are dangerous.

He knows this can’t last.

Publicly the Shimada clan can do nothing but he has already taken out numerous assassins. How strange for them to not be coming for his brother. 

(At least not all of them.)

He visits the river, sewing rocks into their pockets to weigh them down. He knows he is not free. Genji won’t - can’t - leave his brother, as easy as it would be to pack his meager belongings and never come back.

 

Coming home he’s greeted with Hanzo sitting, sword laid across his lap and cradled in his hands. The Shimada banner sits behind him, large and oppressive. His face is expressionless.

Genji falls to his knees, eyes wide, passive. His hands give away the slightest tremor. 

(He cannot fight his brother.)

  
  


**Author's Note:**

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